1. The Buddha in meditation is a quick visual representation of wisdom... and specifically the kind of wisdom that is inappropriate for a Supreme Court Justice, since the Buddha is not consulting texts but looking inward (or at nothing or whatever) and generating new wisdom. Even if she is wise, we don't wantthat wisdom. We want competence operating in the orthodox judicial mode of reading, analyzing, and interpreting the law as it is written.

2. Americans usually think of the Buddha as fat, and it's a way of calling her fat. Just a free-floating insult — to both Sotomayor and the Buddha.

3. The Buddha is a male, and it's a way of suggesting that Sotomayor is insufficiently feminine and perhaps even lesbian.

4. She's other and all those other groups may be blended together and viewed as threatening to the American way of life.

130 comments:

The Americans who were here before Columbus descended from people who had recently come over from Asia, so a "full-blooded Mexican" is in some ways Asian. Of course, a person from Puerto Rico may have an ancestry that is completely European. But, hey, they're all "hispanics."

Ah, what a tangled ethnic web we weave when we try to divide all of humanity into few enough boxes to count on one hand.

The "thinkers/intellectuals" just cannot allow Sotomayor's mixture of a sensitive and caring whole woman with her educational and life history, which totally outshines theirs, to go undestroyed. That cover reminds me of the "Evil Japs" caricatures following Pearl Harbor. The national Review seems to feel surprise attacked by Sonia.

An outraged Huffington Post says we "perplexingly" depict Sotomayor in an Asian manner—apparently not entirely getting the Buddha reference, or Buddha's association with wisdom. Can they really be this clueless?

No, an introspective, fat, lesbian Buddha is not "threatening to the American way of life."

But one, if she were one, which she's not -- this is just a cartoon satire based on something she said and reinforced by her own repetition -- could possibly be threatening to American law if it were taken seriously, which apparently it is.

But I object to all this racial sturm und drang, but not to cartoons which are just so amusing. What do we want from the ultimate Supreme Court justice anyway? A computer loaded with the law library and fitted with a program of algorithm to sort it all?

Though I do relate to this particular objection that the partisan Right is making. Once I had an employee under my supervision challenge that I was unable to understand poor people from another race because my family was not poor nor Latino. Such a quaint thing to say to my esteemed self. My answer to her was if that were true then I would be unable to understand anything that I wasn't raised up in, and as it happens I am capable of understanding things that I myself have not actually lived, like deafness. (She had been waiting for a deaf employee to leave my office.) But all this seemed like such an odd challenge to make coming as it did from someone who didn't even speak Spanish. The Right can drive this point as far as they like, and apparently they are, but they are unlikely to get much mileage out of it and nothing beyond having made their point.

A computer loaded with the law library and fitted with a program of algorithm to sort it all?

No, we don't want - or can even have (at least now) robots ruling on the law. Judges are human and they can't escape their skin (no pun intended).

It is one thing to acknowledge the subjective nature of the enterprise; it is another to argue that the subjective nature is to be embraced and celebrated and, most important, that there are innate superior qualities of one race, ethnicity or gender over others making these rulings.

Anyway, what is the "wise Latina" experience? I have me many Latin women - some wise, some not.

But all unique and different.

There is no more "wise Latinas" then there are "wise white men." All are different people who see the world based on their own unique experiences and perspectives.

Don't forget the 'progressive' photographer's depictions of McCain - the one who got fired - what was her name?

As for this characterization, it does look like her, and I'd theorize it is #1. And I probably wouldn't have used that artwork.

Free speech is free speech and I don't object to her brash statements about a 'wise Latina woman' - it's funny, in context, I am sure, and part of her schtick and bravado. It's her apparent belief that she gets to 'make policy' as a judge that is a real problem.

I hate that, when it comes to a vote, you see party line votes even on the SCOTUS. That should not happen.

Agree with Tex that it's #1 with much less brain strain. If you're looking for a universally recognized symbol of wisdom, what were the alternatives? Judge Sotamayor is anything but Blind Justice, according to her critics. An image of King Solomon threatening to split the baby could easily get sidetracked into another discussion. Buddha is the best of an imperfect lot. BTW, speaking as an Asian American, I am not offended at all by the image, although perhaps Hispanics have a greater right to grievance--these rules are confusing to non-whites too!

I see it as an example of how twisted in knots libs will get in the noverending effort to paint conservatives as racists. Nevermind Joe Leiberman in blackface fellating W or Condaleeza Rice being called Ws "House Nigger". Leftwingers have no credibility or moral superiority in this matter whatsoever.

You guys, including Ann, totally missed it, and the evidence is before your eyes. The caricature shows Judge Sottomayor as a bodhisattva, one of those great souls of Mahayana Buddhism who delay achievement of nirvana so that they may guide others to enlightenment.

New Yoricans do seem to have a wisdom that comes from living in a world City that manages to bring the best out of the many cultural traditions that have come and settled there. Using the Asian meme, they are like Hong Kong citizens as compared to mainland Chinese. They are familiar with using the British style of government yet they also retain the Chinese perspective of living in a 4000 year old culture. That is precisely the wisdom that Sotomayor flaunts. Her test now is to use that wisdom to endure the coming attacks from mainland Americans. She will do fine. The question is whether her attackers are falling for the bait and creating a "Bloody Shirt" for the Obama Boys to waive at the Hispanic jury next election cycle.

Is there any caricature that National Review could have done that wouldn't have been attacked as racist by the left?

Of course not.

It is passing strange (whatever that means) that a person who apparently believes in the "inherent physiological superiority" of one race over the other when making rulings is being defended by people with such racial sensitivities.

I don't think it's racist, and neither do I see anyone "outraged" or calling it racist either. I heard alot of conservatives call her a racist, but I'm wondering where all this supposed outraged and racism from "the left" is located. Anyone?

I think they were going for Buddha in lotus land. Inwardly looking at the true wisdom denied the rest of the world. All the little woodland creatures crowd around the wise Latina in wonder and worship. Everything is perfect in the La La Lotus land of the Wise Latina.

The halo behind her head looks like a shadow of Obama's noggin.

I don't think there was a fat insult as the caricature of her face represents her face, and she has a plump face. IF they wanted to insult her as fat, her Buddha body would have been fat and it isn't in the drawing.

garage: That's because when someone makes many speeches about how "Wise Latinas" will make better decisions than white men and have inherently richer lives solely because of their being a Latina, it pretty much points out a attitude of superiority based on race. She sounds kinda like Pat Buchanan talking about White American culture being superior. Both are wretchedly bigoted based on racial categories.

5. She thinks she is Budda, i.e. she believes she is wiser than the American masses and we should therefore respect and follow her rulings. This is nothing more than poking fun at the typical elitist mentality of progressives; "your" values are obsolete and bad, "my" values are progressive and good. She has spent nearly two decades attempting to support that view.

And if you hold the cover up to the light, it contains a hidden image of an ad for hiking boots, surely a reference to lesbianism, and the phrase Drink more Ovaltine, a sly reference to illegal immigration.

Oh yes, PLEASE. Let's hold hands and pray that the cartoon doesn't reflect the deep seated pathologies of White Anglo, Eurocentric, xenophobic racism, sexism and homophobia. This is the Age of Obama after all.

Run down the check list that Sotomayor actually passes with flying colors and compare that with the attack poster attributes: (1)She is a Christian in a Christian country...not a Buddhist,(2) She is a New York wise ass in a wise ass country....Not a sweet little maid, and (3) she is a caucasian in a majority caucasian country...Not from a Hispanic-roid Race. Have we no decency left in conservative circles now using the mantle of Jim Buckley's magazine that I have enjoyed reading for the last 40 years?

Well, of course it is #1. The other reactions are an example of the dexterity of the left in finding racist or sexist thinking latent in the most deserved criticism. Sotomayor made a stupid remark and deserves to be ridiculed for it. That's the way the in group enforces its norms on the out group. This is sometimes called assimilation....Sotomayor deserves some stings and barbs. The attempt to reduce those casting those stings as being ignorant rednecks is itself an example of bigoted thinking. It's a way of the out group enforcing its norms on the in group. This is sometimes called dissimulation.....When I was young I had a severe case of freckles. I knew what it was like to grow up both dark and white in a world populated by monotones. Freckled people despite, or perhaps because of their bitter experiences among the unocomplected, have learned not just wisdom, but also silence and cunning. Sotomayor's lack of silence and cunning on an inflamnatory subject suggests a lack of wisdom. If I were to brag about the superior wisdom of the freckled, I think I would encounter the same amount of criticism that Sotomayor has....And if you think the right's criticism of Sotomayor is harsh, just wait and see how the left will attack her if she should someday make a pro life decision.

The cover is just mocking her "wise" comment, and reading more into it is pretty stupid. And, this incident helps illustrate a few things:

1. Leftwingers will call practically anything racist.

2. People like Althouse are easily distracted.

3. Most BHO opponents - and almost none who run blogs - have no clue about how to oppose BHO. In this particular case, the way to have minimized any negative impact from the cover would have been to have discredited those leftwing bloggers in advance by pointing out how they've lied about other things. Charges of racism coming from someone who has little credibility aren't going to have much of an impact. NationalReview and their blogger fans have no clue about how to effectively discredit someone and instead mostly just play games.

"Has any post on this blog about alleged racism against a traditionally disadvantaged group ever been met with comments other than, "That's not racist/offensive"?"

Has any right-of-Lenin criticism of a political figure from a "traditionally disadvantaged group" ever been met with comments from the left other than "Racism!!!! You racists!!!"?

You're all playing the Democratic Racial Extortion game: "Don't criticize our candidates who are from "traditionally disadvantaged groups" or we'll completely slime you as racists!"

It's a repulsive and pernicious strategy that unfortunately works (see Obama, Barack) for the Democrats and will ultimately lead to discord, violence and the complete destruction of our nation. But you're willing to risk that if it means absolute power for the Democrats in the meantime.

I love how the Ivy-league educated President of the United States and an Ivy-league educated nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States can be claimed to be "disadvantaged".

First, Obama never claimed to be disadvantaged.

Second, the "advantaged" seldom grow up in housing projects. Unless they were swapped as infants in the hospital, of course.

But this new idea that good fortune experienced as adults wipes out whatever hardship you suffered in childhood is amazing, a breakthrough.

Abe Lincoln's comfortable brick home in Springfield thus cancels out the log cabins of his childhood. Practicing law, Lincoln can no longer claim the rails he split in his youth. Herbert Hoover's successful mining career means he was no longer an orphan.

Art doesn't have to abide by yours or anyone's narrow political dogmatism.

You just don't like it because it's satirizing someone who you're supposed to like. If it were a caricature of your political opponent, you'd have no problem with it. I wish you people were honest in your partisanship.

"Agree with Tex that it's #1 with much less brain strain. If you're looking for a universally recognized symbol of wisdom, what were the alternatives?"

For those of us mostly unfamiliar the Buddha represents wisdom. From the comments it would seem that for those familiar the symbolism more specific... someone did some homework on it.

The miss-match of races and response to that says a whole lot about us, I think. Can the Buddha represent wisdom for people who are not Asian or are all such symbolisms exclusionary? Am I, for example, limited to Norse symbolism? Can I get proprietary about Norse symbolism and set up a test of Norse-ness for anyone who wants to invoke Thor?

It would be really silly to do that. And it's silly to go on as if the most important thing about Buddha is his race.

Palladian said... Is this caricature offensive? How much do we have to tune down our caricatures in order to not offend the perpetually faux-offended? Maybe there could be some sort of electronic measurement device..

You're making it too complicated. Only need Offens-O-Meter calibrated to who drew the caricature.

Mike Mcneil: Sorry for the slip of the name on Bill Buckley. I was late for the golf course. It is 72 and breezy and sunny in Atlanta today. A temp in the high 80's is normal. The National review was in my home since I was 11 years old. The radio Firingline and later the TV show were exquisite pleasures to hear. My only sin was to attend a "liberal arts" college called Emory. My father was always suspicious of me since then, as you seem to be now. Sorry, but a good liberal arts school teaches you to keep on learning for a lifetime. Let' justs learn more about wise hispanics before we identify this Judge as an enemy.

Let' justs learn more about wise hispanics before we identify this Judge as an enemy

I know a lot about Hispanics, having lived in Mexico for years, (my God Parents are Mexican nationals), growing up in California a decidedly Hispanic State, and being related to Latinas from not only Mexico but also South America.

A "wise" Latina knows better than to tell everyone that she thinks she is "wise".

I don't see Sotamayor as an "enemy", however I do see that her attitude of cultural, gender and racial superiority is very much NOT what we want in an impartial judge.

Once again: No one expects a judge or anyone else to be able to completely leave their personal thoughts and experiences at the door when they take up a position. The very troubling thing about THIS "wise" Latina is that she seems to revel in using those items in making judgements rather than striving to be impartial.

Has any right-of-Lenin criticism of a political figure from a "traditionally disadvantaged group" ever been met with comments from the left other than "Racism!!!! You racists!!!"?.

Let's see them. I seen a few "WTF is this" blog posts, and aside from the usual skins vs shirts tit-for-tat that the left and right engage in, I haven't seen any that said the NRO cover was "racist". You're moderately intelligent, don't you bore yourself with these predictable strawmen all the time? Snap out of it man!

JAC : Has any post on this blog about alleged racism against a traditionally disadvantaged group ever been met with comments other than, "That's not racist/offensive"?

I think everyone agreed what Rangel said about Obama not wandering around Harlem was racist. A lot of people here believed some of the things that happened to Palin were sexist and offensive. I know when Althouse made her comments about Jindal I called her a racist. And I'm sure a lot of people felt the constant allusion to Obama being a historical candidate and pandered to by the press was racist.

In the 19th century Puerto Rico had large scale Chinese immigration.When I first saw her picture I thought she had strong Asiatic features.

That was my thought exactly when I first saw her pictures. Perhaps Great-Granddad was a Chinese immigrant shopkeeper in San Juan. I grew up in a city with a substantial Puerto Rican population, they accounted for close to a quarter of my high school, and while their features run the gamut I don't ever recall seeing one who looked at all Asian.

On the other hand, there's the case of Seth MacFarlane. He also looks vaguely Asian, but I don't believe he actually has any Asian ancestry. Sotomayor may be a similar case.

She's drawn as the Buddha... the Buddha is Asian... so why is it inexplicable that she's drawn as Asian?

I guess you could say "it is inexplicable that she's drawn as the Buddha". But considering she's being sarcastically identified as "wise", a person would have to be fairly slow to find that inexplicable. :)

Obviously, number one. The first thought I had when I saw it was "Ah, the wise Latina thing." As I am a National Review subscriber and so part of the target audience, I think my reaction is probably the one they were going for.

I've never thought of the Buddha as fat, and I'm always surprised when I see him depicted that way, so I didn't think of the fat angle. Also, the body of the caricature isn't fat.

Like the New Yorker cover during the campaign, it's clear that NR hit what they were aiming at. They wanted to put out a racially cathected caricature and retain some measure of deniability, and they've done so. Bully for them.

The symbols of the image are derived from mahayana buddhism (see here here or here), specifically depictions of Amithaba. None of those traditional depictions, however, gives the buddha the features NR gives to Sotomayor (which are reminiscent of jazz age depictions of chinamen or, for that matter, abercrombie tshirts).

The symbols of the image are derived from mahayana buddhism (see here here or here), specifically depictions of Amithaba. None of those traditional depictions, however, gives the buddha the features NR gives to Sotomayor (which are reminiscent of jazz age depictions of chinamen or, for that matter, abercrombie tshirts).

amba says:I'm gonna echo the very first comment. First of all, Buddha is just a cliché for “wise,” and second of all, to the extent that Sotomayor may have some Amerindian blood she's “Mongolian.”

In my view there's absolutely no reason why anyone should have to possess either Asian or American Indian ancestry before they may be (politically correctly) caricatured as a Buddha.

But beyond that, though Hispanics in general incorporate a considerable admixture of American Indian “blood,” my understanding is that essentially all the American natives of Puerto Rico in particular were exterminated by Spanish reprisals and atrocities, in conjunction with pandemics of Old World diseases (smallpox, measles, typhus), by the early 16th century.

As a result, folks today of Puerto Rican origin may have an Indian or two somewhere back in their remote ancestry, but pretty darned few.

Here is a stunning revelation. Wisdom isn't and shouldn't be something you advertise as a characteristic you possess. Wisdom is a projection of the acquired knowledge and experience of life put into positive action through advice, suggestion, and most importantly, love.

If someone like Sotomayor has to advertise how wise they are on a constant and continuous basis, I will be you good money that they are not and probably have no inkling of what it means to be wise.

I'm still waiting to see Christ depicted as a Middle Easterner. As of yet, no crucifixes have had a hooked-nose Jesus with a unibrow — a pre-electrolysis Wolowitz.

As the saying goes, “peasant wait on hillside with mouth open for long time before duck fly in.” You obviously haven't looked very hard at all — why then be surprised that nothing has flown in?

Here, for instance, is the Akeroptera (sp?), ”Rome's most holy picture” according to historian and archaeologist John Romer, located today in the chapel of the ancient palace of the Popes of Rome, but supposedly painted by early Christians on the walls of Pontius Pilate's palace (while actually it comes from pre-iconoclastic Constantinople of the 7th century).

Christians round the world indeed very often represent Jesus as a member of their own people. Here, for instance, is Christ as an American Indian (in the Old Jesuit Mission in the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation at Hays, Montana).

In response to traditionalguy, I don't think the "thinkers/intellectuals" were really the target of this caricature. I'd argue it was simply meant as a humorous caricature (well, maybe a little prod at the "wise" comment, but not much else).

Newsy.com just recently ran an analysis of the cover with some thoughts both from Rich Lowry and from some of the cover's critics. I found it relatively balanced, though it struck me as falling a little bit against the image.

Maybe 10 years ago, NR got into a bit of hot water about a caricature on the cover. The next issue, they caricatured the staff to show they can take as well as give; both were done by Roman Genn.

Genn's depictions of the staff included a Russian staff member as nesting dolls, the Italian publisher (Ed Capano) eating pasta with a tommy gun dressed as a gangster and other fun images which I forget.

But here's where I stand: SS thinks she's wiser than the rest of us (as a heterosexual white male I belive that she's said as much) and depicting her as Buddha drives that point home.

And I would like to point out that in all stereotypes is some truth. Be it the lazy Mexican (excuse me, Hispanic), the dumb Pole, or the niggardly Scot, there is some truth at heart of the stereotype.

Off topic: Speaking of stereotypes, here in the hell-hole of Southern California people wear shirts proclaiming that they are Mexican, not Hispanic or Latino. The shirts proclaim that "Hispanics are Anglo Europeans from Spain" and that "Latinos are Anglo Europeans from Italy." I have on several occassions pointed out that that is only half correct. Hispanics and Latinos are Europeans, from Spain (and Portugul, Gibralter, and Andorra) and Italy respectively, but that they are not Anglos, who are actually Germans living in Britain. It also means I am not Caucasian, because I do not descend from people from the Caucasus.

Who said you can't study law and meditate? She could study and read law all day, then when she is tired and needs to sleep, she can sit and meditate for 30 minutes, maybe she feels that it helps her focus, then she wakes up, meditates, then after meditating she is ready to read the written law, there is a science behind meditation, when you sit still and lower your eye lids for 30 minutes or so you are building a muscle, in your eyes, which are the closest thing to your brain, meditation builds a muscle in your brain and in your eyes, it makes you more intelligent, intelligence is wisdom, they are the same thing, and if it helps her read and keep up with all those laws, then let her do it, that's why when practicing meditation, it's best to do it as privately as possible, or people are going to think your strange.

Basically the picture is shaming Buddhism, meditation, ect. it's shaming it, they don't condone meditation, they don't not like, and they do not understand, and they hate it, so this is their way of trying to get her to stop, also they want people to ridicule her, it's not simply "making a joke" about meditation, haha what you can't take a joke? No, the message of this picture is to shame her meditation and have people ridicule her everywhere she goes, that is what the people who oppose her want to do, if she actually practices daily meditation, she will have no problem with this, in today's society, stereotypical cartoons that shame another person's race or religion is the norm,it makes us laugh, and it's funny, but the REAL motive of the picture is , like I said, it's the people who oppose her, they want to give her ridicule from the people who are going to see and recognize her, the picture wants them to ridicule her, and put her meditation practice to shame. That's the truth.